IGL Trials Database

Innovating product design is crucial for firms operating in the digital sector as it is closely linked with innovation capability and, therefore, with firm performance and productivity. In this paper, we run a randomized controlled trial to assess if participating in an open innovation initiative increases SMEs’ capability to design more competitive digital products. More specifically, the intervention aimed at increasing firms’ knowledge of the Design Sprint and their readiness to implement user-centered design techniques.

This experiment involved making the information on the WBSO website clearer and more personally relevant to entrepreneurs. The visibility of the call-to-action was also enhanced. The study showed that entrepreneurs were prompted to spend more time exploring the possibilities offered by the Research and Development (Promotion) Act (WBSO) and that they read the information more carefully.

This experiment is listed in the BINN report "A wealth of behavioural insights - 2023 edition". Further information on the trial and authors may be available elsewhere.

Innovation plays a pivotal role in fostering economic growth, yet there is a limited understanding of whether it can be taught. I conduct a randomized evaluation of an education program implemented by a state government and a nonprofit organization, providing an opportunity to 6,224 8th-grade students from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop frugal innovations for global and local problems. To assess students’ innovative ability, I created a novel scale with inputs from experienced inventors and used a lab-in-the-field game from experimental economics.

An RCT was used to investigate the effectiveness of an innovation support scheme (ISS) for SMEs in tackling age diversity challenges. The ISS included leadership training aimed at fostering team climate and valuing age diversity, and computer-based cognitive training for employees. Levels of recruitment into the trial, engagement in the interventions and response rates to surveys were lower than anticipated, which have all limited the potential to identify the impacts of the interventions.

We examine the influence of physical proximity on between-startup knowledge spillovers at one of the largest technology co-working hubs in the United States. Relying on the random assignment of office space to the hub's 251 startups, we find that proximity positively influences knowledge spillovers as proxied by the likelihood of adopting an upstream web technology already used by a peer startup.

Women are underrepresented in patenting and the gap is not closing quickly. One major roadblock to progress is a dearth of causal evidence on the potential effectiveness of policies to reduce the gender gap in patenting. Analyzing a randomized control trial at the United States Patent and Trademark Office that was designed to provide additional help to applicants who do not have legal representation, we find heterogeneous causal impacts across gender and technologies on the probability of obtaining patent rights.

This experiment tries to understand how managers respond to uncertainty when making research and development decisions. Three experiments were conducted with master’s degree students in a program focused on the intersection of business and technology.

Design thinking remains mired in controversy. Its proponents claim that it enhances not just confidence but also creativity, while the opponents question whether it does anything beyond building unfounded confidence. To bring rigorous evidence to this debate, we designed a randomised field experiment amongst school children served by a major non-governmental organisation in rural India.

The main objective of this project is to test the effects of feedback with and without relative ranking scores on SMEs and first-time applicants performance in the funding program “General Programme” of the FFG, and business performance after the program. The feedback for each firm will be based on evaluations scores of the respective funding proposal from project evaluators in the FFG. The participants in the RCT are all Start-ups, SMEs, and large companies who are first-time applicants accepted into the funding program in the timespan of a year.

Many Start Ups and Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) have an immature methodological approach to innovation and half of them present a clear deficit in innovation know-how, pointing towards a need for extra support. The efficacy of two approaches to building knowledge and increasing awareness of non-technical innovation among Start Ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) will be tested.

This paper investigates the role of information sharing among experts as the driver of evaluation decisions.

Organizations constantly strive to unleash their entrepreneurial potential to keep up with market and technology changes. To this end, they engage employees in practices like corporate crowdsourcing, incubators, accelerators or hackathons. These organizational practices emulate independent “green-field” entrepreneurship by relinquishing hierarchical control and granting employees autonomy in the choices of how to conduct work.

User entrepreneurs are responsible for the most important innovations in many industries, but little research has explored the performance of firms founded by user entrepreneurs. While user entrepreneurs have a deep knowledge of customer needs that facilitates the identification of innovative solutions, they tend to lack the relevant business knowledge (e.g., market, production, operational and organizational) to successfully exploit opportunities and grow their ventures.

Existing theories and empirical research on how innovation occurs largely assume that innovativeness is an inherent characteristic of the individual and that people with this innate ability select into jobs that require it. In this paper, we investigate whether people who do not self-select into being innovators can be induced to innovate, and whether they innovate differently than those who do self-select into innovating.